The ITF (International Taekwon-Do Federation) World Championships take place every 2 years - and this year they were held here in Benidorm. The four day event took place at the state of the art sports centre - the "Palau dÉsporte L´llla de Benidorm" with weigh-in´s taking place at the Gran Hotel Bali on the Wednesday and the actual competition heats starting on Thursday.
The Gran Hotel Bali is already used for the BASE Jumping Championships every June... with somewhat dramatic results this year!

Participants started arriving to the resort at the beginning of the week and I met up with the England team, who were staying at the Marina Hotel in the very centre of Benidorm. Also staying at the same hotel were members of the Jamaican and Columbian teams. In total 56 different countries took part in the competition with around 1200 competitors. In addition to the competitors coaches, trainers, federation representatives and judges also attended - boosting the hotel occupancy considerably over the course of the week.

Team England

The 32 strong England team arrived on Tuesday evening and straight away headed to the outside pool area to get some practise in before dinner. The youngest was 16 and the oldest approaching his sixth decade.... but all extremely fit and agile.

They told me that the trip is all self funded by the participants, showing 100% commitment to the sport.
The team was made up of members from various clubs around England and they all had to take part in lengthy selection trials in order to qualify for the team.

The team events were the most problematic as members came from various clubs across the country and so didn´t have that much opportunity to actually practice together. They endeavour to travel to each others clubs at the weekend, but it often involves hours in the car to make that happen - hence they were wasting no time on arrival and headed straight outside to rehearse.

Team England did brilliantly and managed to win 2 gold medals - well done to you all. It was certainly great for the resort to be hosting such a high profile sporting event and showcasing the best of what Benidorm has to offer. Hopefully the town will get the opportunity to host other International events, bringing with it an influx of visitors which is always welcome.

Figures just published for September show that foreign visitors to Spain spent an average of 108 euros per day - an increase of 2.6%... Benidorm could certainly do with some of that.